But a decent striker and a holding midfielder would make more of a difference right? Actually, a fuck load more of a difference :lol: . So Giroud is starting to score? Good for him, I'm glad he's an Arsenal player, I like him. However, unless you think he's going to turn into David Villa or Edson Cavani overnight it really isn't good enough for where we want to be.

A holding midfielder was sorely needed and we will suffer for it.

This squad isn't good enough, else why would we be sixth?

I liked you better that one time that you got home drunk and came on the forums and were optimistically deluded like the rest of us... 8-[

In all honesty though, being deluded and optimistic is part of being a sports fan. You're team is rarely doing as well as you want it to no matter who you support.

*fingers crossed for 4th place, FA Cup and Champions league trophy*

:lol:
Goes without saying man, I want us to do well and I'll still hope but I'm just worried I'll be waking up on a Friday morning for the mickey mouse cup. I think ultimately, that's what being a football fan is about. It's why we're different to other "codes", we love our club so much that we're willing to dissect their every move and if people don't think it's a good one then god help the manager.

Agreed.

glad we got monreal . provides competion to gibbs . we still need a proper dm . yes mikki and rambo have been good but we need a proper strong dont fuck with me dm. diame is that player. lets hiope we can get him in summer and maybe villa. hope to hell that hfb doesnt get injured , as the player we have in reserve is gervinho:lol:

HFB gets injured and I'd be perfectly comfortable with Theo up front with Santi or Ox on the right. Plenty of options other than Gervinho.

Hopefully we get someone better and more suited to a holding role than Diame.
He's quite an attack minded player from what I've seen. Was doing much more attacking than defending last week.

Wanyama looks the full package [-o< Probably too expensive though.

This summer, without any departures, I definitely think we need a DM and a back up striker, which should be easily doable.

I see where everyone is coming from but I prefer to be on the optimistic side... Life is more enjoyable that way.

I also go with the point that Gibbs, Henry, Vermaelen and Arsharvin made crucial late impacts in games last year we couldnt have dont without, I'm sure there were more. Giroud and Podolski are doing really well upfront for their first year the club this year and I think we are really strong upfront in General. Another top class striker would be nice but I have to assume there are targets that didnt work out this time.

I am liking the concept of only buying quality... this season we have Podolski, Cazorla, Giroud and Monreal. Much improved over the year before when when amongst some competent players we had Santos and Park. I believe Diame wasn't a target because he wasnt up to scratch. We'll be in a great place to but once guys like Santos, Squillaci, Frimong, Chamakh, Park, Denilson and Bendtner are off the books. If a player isn't worth being in the first team, they aren't worth having. Even if there isnt a real DM, I am sure there are targets, we just didnt pick them up this time around.

What would be better for Arsenal supporters:
- Winning the Champions League and finishing 4th
- Winning the Champions League and finishing 5th. Spurs finish above you in 4th, but you deny them a CL place like Chelsea did last season.

Tempting to say the second option because it would piss them off so much :lol:

But I'd definitely go with finishing 4th. Means alot more to beat them fair and square. Gotta mind the gap ;) Can't put a scratch on that 17 year record of finishing in the top 4 either.

If we end up in the Europa League the amount of options will be limited. The club need to prepare themselves for that possibility.

Anyone know what that 30 million pound bid was about in the end?

That Arsenal George who "leaked" it said if it doesn't happen he will tell us who it was that we bid 30 mill on after the window shuts. I can't find anything about it now though.

I thought it was Geoff... I had a hunch it could have been Schweinsteiger...

Arteta,Diaby and Monreal are too start apparently. One of Jack,Lukas or Santi to be rested. Thinking it will be Santi.

A clean sheet would be a breath of fresh air tonight [-o<

Poldi has been one of our best recently, seems strange for him to be on the bench.

3 points is good, Stoke can be hard to beat, its clear again why people describe them as a rugby team, the ref was very lenient.

Nacho had a good game, Wenger was quite defensive about Santos this week, but it is clear is a last resort, Nacho is good but he has only trained once with the side.

If we dont get too many injuries the side will be quite strong.

An expected result but good defending I have to say.

Puts us into the top 4, with spurs 2 points behind us with 2 games spare. They have WBA away tonight which is no easy fixture, hopefully WBA can do us some favours.

Wut?
I think you were adding this win onto the table again after it has already been added.

They're 1 point ahead of us with 1 game to spare.



I thought it was a solid debut for Monreal without being outstanding. Defensively good (under not much pressure this game) and looks capable of putting in a dangerous cross but made a couple mindless unforced errors, nothing dangerous to our goal though.

Was going off that which does look wrong.

BBC has this too

Edited by KenGooner_GCU: 3/2/2013 01:58:11 PM

Someone added all of last nights games twice to that table.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/table

Nah Neanderthal is right, they've added it twice, just counted all of our premier league fixtures off the Arsenal Website.

How did Monreal go?

Didn't have too much to do defensively, had a couple of nice touches (also a couple of sloppy ones) and looked at times like he didn't know when to overlap or present for a safe option. He has only been training with us for a day so all of that will come in time.

I noticed premierleague.com and skysports had the table wrong today, and both tables were vastly different

Couldn't watch the game, glad we got the win and going only by stats seems we were fairly dominant. Good to hear Nacho looked good on his debut, look forward to seeing more of him.

Jack <3